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- Convenor:
-
Linda Galvane
(Stanford University)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Eve Zimmerman
(Wellesley College)
- Stream:
- Modern Literature
- Location:
- Torre A, Piso -1, Auditório 002
- Sessions:
- Friday 1 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel explores the politics of non-normative sexualities in modern Japanese literature, examining the processes behind the formation of these sexual expressions and transgressive body images and how these representations have related to changing socio-cultural and political circumstances.
Long Abstract:
This panel explores the politics of non-normative sexualities in Japanese literature, examining the processes behind the formation of these sexual expressions and transgressive body images and how these representations have related to changing socio-cultural and political circumstances. All three papers explore various types of relationships and body images in different time periods but they are closely related in their attempts to focus on the sexual behavior or images that invert, contradict, or present an alternative to commonly held cultural codes, values, and norms, and simultaneously endorse certain norms by transgressing them. These non-normative sexualities are thereupon presented as highly charged intersections and mediations of various social and political forces.
Takayuki Yokota-Murakami will demonstrate the way the association with peripheral topoi, such as Manchuria, can function to achieve authorization of non-standard sex through the representative Meiji literary texts, particularly focusing on semi-tabooed uncle-niece incest relationship in Shimazaki Tōson's Vita Nova and brother-sister incest in Futabatei Shimei's In His Image, where recuperation of patriarchal ego after the violation of a sexual code was sought through the tentative assimilation to the margin of the dominant political field of the Empire. Linda Galvane will explore the representations of queer female bodies and sexuality related to enema in the influential "magazine of perverse desire" Kitan Club. She will demonstrate how the inflation of female bodies resulting from enema resembles procreation but as a non-productive sexual practice can be read as a remonstration to the pre-war imperial ideology of "good wife, wise mother." Noriko Hiraishi develops the theme of female queer bodies further, focusing on the thematics of "female freaks." With Matsuura Rieko's novel Apprenticeship of Big Toe P at the core of her analysis, Hiraishi will examine the representations of female sexuality and body transgressions within the socio-cultural and political context of 1990s Japan. By examining the expressions of sexuality positioned on the peripheries - geo-political, cultural, and gender - this panel thus focuses on the political signification of transgressive sexualities and explores how these representations in Japanese modern literature reveal often ignored aspects of the dialogue between the dominant and the subordinate.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 1 September, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
This paper attempts to analyze the reconcilation of a semi-taboo sexual relationship such as brother-sister love by escaping to, and alignment with, the subordinate geographical sphere such as Manchuria, observed in cases such as Shimazaki Toson's _Vita Nova_ or Futabatei Shime's _In His Image._
Paper long abstract:
Levi-Strauss postulated incest taboo as the most basic code of a human society. It is the most fundamental semiotic function that a human-being acquires in order to enter the realm of culture. Hence, incest taboo is universal and observed by any known society.
If we, however, conceive of incest taboo slightly more loosely, i.e. if we take it to mean a taboo against a sexual relationship between the members of a certain kinship, cultural varieties emerge. Every society has its own specific kind of exogamous rule.
Brother-sister incest is normally considered as more or less universal. There is, however, a hypothesis that brother-sister incest was a common practice in ancient Japan, which is reflected in the usage of the word imo in the sense of a spouse.
This is a moot point, but the Japanese society in more recent stages clearly shows some residual features of such incest. For instance, in Tokugawa and Meiji period when the adoption at the early childhood of a future bridegroom was popular, he was invariably conceived as a (big) brother. Marriages between cousins (conceived as brothers/sister of the second kind) were also very popular.
The extremely popular motif of the contemporary comics/anime, featuring brother-sister incest may also be a residual feature of such a practice.
It is notable, however, that in justifying such a form of incest, often an inter-ethnic evoked. For instance, Toson Shimazaki attempts to overcome the scandal over his amorous relationship with his niece by traveling to Manchuria. In contemporary popular culture where representation of brother-sister incest abounds, often the Westernized or Americanized aspect of a sister is emphasized. Apparently, the transgression of ethnic boundaries is utilized in compromising other transgression in the field of non-normative sexuality.
This paper, analyzing cases of incest (brother-sister) and semi-incest (uncle-niece, cousins, etc.) in various modern cultural texts, attempts to demonstrate how the transgression of ethnic boundaries is utilized in compromising other transgression in the field of non-normative sexuality.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the representations of queer female bodies and sexuality in the works dedicated to enema in the magazine Kitan Club in 1950s, demonstrating how this non-productive sexual practice can be read as a remonstration to the pre-war imperial ideology of "good wife, wise mother."
Paper long abstract:
This paper analyzes the representations of queer female bodies and sexuality in the works that depict enema and that were written by female authors and published in Kitan Club, one of the most influential post-war magazines of 'perverse sexual desire,' in 1950s. Although enema, when depicted in relation to sexuality, is often presumed to be void of any political signification and considered merely as one of the practices of perverse sexual desire, I will demonstrate how such representations of transgressive sexuality relate to and reflect various pre-war and post-war socio-cultural and political issues. In particular, I argue that the interest in enema that emerged in 1950s and appeared first in the writings of female contributors in so-called 'magazines of perverse sexual desire' can be read as a remonstration to the pre-war construct of ideal women as pure, children-bearing bodies related to the imperial ideology of "good wife, wise mother."
Enema often figures in the literature that takes up the thematics of sadomasochism because this practice is related to humiliation and shame, the key components of sadomasochistic relationship. Particular interest in enema in Japan emerged in 1950s in the 'magazines of perverse sexual desire,' gradually developing a particular subset of publications, both (pseudo-)scientific and literary, dedicated to this practice. Although male authors dominated later publications, the first major contributors that took up this thematic in Kitan Club in 1950s were female. Moreover, some of them were particularly interested in depicting the swelling of the protagonist's stomach as a result of anal injection of various liquids and air. Although these particular practices evoke the idea of pregnancy, they are non-procreative acts that, furthermore, are associated with impurity and perversity. Namely, these representations present a complete opposite to the propagated pre-war imperial ideology of "good wife, wise mother" imposed on women. By analyzing various cases of female writing dedicated to the thematics of enema and the transformations of female bodies caused by it in the light of pre- and post-war discourse of (non-)normative sexualities in Japan, this paper will examine the political signification embedded in often ignored expressions of transgression.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the representations of female bodies as "freaks" in the 1990s Japanese fiction. By analyzing two cases that focus on such women (with a penis growing out of one's toe and a plastic-surgery beauty), it examines how the queer bodies challenge the sexual norms of Japanese society.
Paper long abstract:
The female body has always been an attractive and controversial "object" in various societies. To reconsider the political significance of transgressive sexualities, this paper explores the representations of female bodies as "freaks" in the 1990s Japanese fiction.
Matsuura Rieko's Apprenticeship of Big Toe P (1993) is a novel about a young Japanese girl who wakes up one afternoon to discover that her big toe has turned into a penis. This big toe P makes her realize the gender/sexual norms of the male-oriented Japanese society, and her journey of apprenticeship with members of a freak-show opens the door to a new perception of sexualities. Although getting a "phallus," the protagonist of this work never takes sides with the phallocentric society: as a "freak," she represents the weak and diverse values. This point makes a stark contrast with the cross-dressed heroines of Japanese fiction who never seriously threaten the heterosexual, male-oriented Japanese society, just as the Takarazuka Revue does not.
On the other hand, Okazaki Kyoko's manga, Helter Skelter (1995-1996) depicts a powerful "freak," dealing with the plastic surgery issues. With her overwhelming beauty gained by head-to-toe plastic surgery, the protagonist, Ririko, becomes an icon of the day until she finds the signs of her body's deterioration. It is notable that the story treats Ririko as a freak not because her artificial body collapses, but because of her excessive (and aggressive) desire for beauty. Her provocative body reveals the obsession of the society with the female beauty, and problematizes the border between beauty and ugliness.
By analyzing these two cases that focus on young women - one with a penis growing out of her big toe, another one a plastic-surgery beauty - this paper examines the challenges that the queer bodies have posed to the social norms of Japanese society in the 1990s.